THE PEARS OF NEW YORK 53 



of European varieties of fruits became an important part of the nursery 

 business. The importation of pears became an obsession with Manning, 

 his nursery alone importing several hundred varieties. Manning's work 

 must have a more extended notice. 



In 1823, Robert Manning established a pomological garden at Salem, 

 Massachusetts, to collect and test as many varieties of fruits as he could 

 obtain, native and foreign, with the intention of propagating and distributing 

 those which proved most worthy. In furthering this great project he 

 entered into correspondence with the leading pomologists of Europe, and 

 from them secured trees and cions, which, with native sorts, brought his 

 collection up to 2000 varieties of fruits at the time of his death in 1842. 

 More than half of the varieties planted by Manning were pears. This, it 

 will be remembered, was the period in which Belgian, French, and English 

 pomologists were making pears a specialty, and led by Van Mons, the 

 Belgian scientist, had succeeded in putting almost a new pear flora in the 

 hands of fruit-growers. Manning grew in America nearly all of Van Mons' 

 introductions, received direct from the originator, and many acquisitions 

 from other European pomologists as well, notably many varieties from 

 Robert Thompson of the London Horticultural Society. Manning was 

 one of the most careful observers amongst American pomologists, and to 

 him pear-growers are indebted for the first full and accurate descriptions of 

 the fruits grown in his time in this country. These were published in 1838 

 in his Book of Fruits. American pomologies before and many since were 

 compilations. Manning made his descriptions first-hand and described no 

 fruit " not actually identified beyond a reasonable doubt of its genuineness." 



After Manning, one might well scan the work of several eminent 

 American pomologists who made pears a specialty. Robert Manning, Jr., 

 continued the work of his father with this fruit and the two Downings, 

 Wilder, Barry, and Thomson found the pear the most interesting of the 

 fruits which they grew. To all of these men, pomologists are indebted 

 for the introduction of many new and choice pears; for the identification 

 of varieties ; for the correction of the nomenclature of this fruit ; for testing 

 hundreds of seedlings and native and foreign varieties; and for the 

 distribution of pears throughout the whole country. 



A history of the pear in America requires some mention of its intro- 

 duction in the Pacific states since that region is now the greatest center 

 of the pear industry in the country, and the home of several notable varieties. 

 Franciscan monks established missions in California at about the time the 



